What WILL they do next?

The more I read about the ten Baptists, waiting for word in Haiti, the more I think about Scott and Karen Banks.  The Banks thought they too were providing better lives for poor children.   In fact, they chose to make it their business to take poor children, from poor parents, and sell those Samoan children to those willing (and able) to pay the tens of thousands of dollars necessary to obtain a so-called orphaned child.

Let's think about this for a few minutes, folks.... people are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to take a child, from the poor, but few are willing to go out and work with and empower the poor so they don't have to send their children away, in the first place.  But that's another soap-box rant, isn't it?

In this latest case, the Baptist group knew that "what they were doing was wrong."   And yet one pastor claims they would do it again.

The mind set is:  "We're providing a better life".   

"Providing a better life",  through international adoption.   <Thinking back, and laughing at the sickness involved in some cases>  I'm reminded of the story of Lauryn Galindo, and how her "humanitarian efforts" hurt so many, (including herself), in the end. 

Special Agent Richard Cross with the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that each adoption cost $11,500, totaling $9.2 million for all 800.

And while $2.8 million was supposed to go to support orphanages, the miserable conditions in the institutions do not support that the money was actually delivered.

Cross traveled to Cambodia where he "saw an unattended baby lying in a pool of urine on the linoleum floor," as well as buildings that smelled of feces and no evidence of "food, formula or cribs."

Before sentencing Galindo, Zilly noted that she had performed "a substantial amount of charitable and public service."

But he went on to say that that charitable work put Galindo in the position to "deliberately erase children's identity ... take children away from parents without consent ... work with orphanages that have been accused of child trafficking.

"The children who were taken from their families improperly, illegally, far outweighs the good you did."

In addition to 18 months in prison, Galindo must forfeit $1.4 million in equity in her home on the north coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the cash value of her Jaguar and other assets.

[From:   Adoption broker gets 18 months ].

But I digress... that is an old story... a story that came out in 2004, five years before a judge decided no prison time should be served by the Banks, owners of another adoption agency, operating in another poor country.

Today's crisis interventions and foreign missions relate to Haiti, not Cambodia or Samoa.  Yep, these days, all eyes are on Haiti. 

There seems to be many good-intentioned people looking to remove poor children from dire situations, but isn't this limited aid, given to very small groups, part of a much bigger problem? 

Who is being removed and given the  second chance of a life-time?  The children who are known to be true-orphans... with no roots, no family... or the children who look very "adoptable"... the ones who look easy to sell?  Who is being looked at and over, so a future adoption-plan can be discussed?

This is where foreign adoption plans become very complex, especially if we dare to include "informed consent" into the already tricky equation.

As a single-income parent myself, I can understand how poor parents - with no means - will want to jump and respond, when presented with an opportunity to send their children away to a place that has far better housing, not to mention "free" education.   Having four children, I can easily see how such an offer (free housing, clothing and schooling) would be seen as an enormous generous gift!  Good lord, it's like hitting the lottery, isn't it?  I mean, really... what struggling but very loving parent doesn't make that wish that says, "maybe my child will be chosen... maybe my child will be gifted by very generous people.... maybe my child can and will have much better than me."   I think there's tons of parents wishing they could help their children break-out of a really bad cycle and pattern.  Here's the real tragedy --  too many greedy, corrupt people are involved in adoption services.  Too many lying doctors, nurses, social workers, lawyers and adoption agency affiliates are making thousands and thousands of dollars each time a child is taken away... and sent to live somewhere else.   Worse, yet, too often an orphanage director will keep forced donation fees away from those who really need better living conditions.  As a result, children are being neglected and getting hurt, in spite of a poor parent's wishes.  

But there is another side to the wanting-an-adoption plan.  For many, adoption is not only seen as a "great once-in-a-lifetime opportunity", adoption is seen as an escape.  As in, "Boy, I wished I was adopted, and not forced to live in this crappy place, with these horrible people."

I can empathise with the  older child who sits in crap-care wishing and dreaming about life anywhere else.  Yes, life in a land where food and water is good and plenty and nice new clothes, are gifted too!  Life where there are no more attacks; no more beatings. "Maybe on holidays, we can all go to Disney World, and at home, I won't have to sleep on the floor, with ten other people!".  A person living in crap has much to dream about.

Children are removed from "poor care", but they are being sent..... WHERE?!?

This is where do-gooders need to stop and think about the actions of other people... people who act one way in public, but act very very differently when at home, or in private.  Children are trusting, and want to believe "nice adults"... nice people... won't bring harm.  When children are dreaming about great adoptive parents, they are not thinking about having forced sex with the new daddy in Disney World, or having broomsticks shoved up the ass.  They are not dreaming about living in cages, or sleeping on a cold basement floor, surrounded by feces and urine.  These soon-to-be adopted children are not dreaming about being chained with a dog collar around the neck, or having limbs broken because the poop didn't go into the toilet.  Waiting to be adopted kids do not dream about being starved, or forced to drink a cayenne pepper solution, or swallow their own vomit.  Children wishing for their escape are hoping for a new improved life, not a more wretched hell.

True, not every adoptive parent is abusive... but there are enough closet sickos in the world to give one more reason for people to stop and think before actually doing.  This rapid rush to send children into foreign homes in insane, but only to those who know just how insane some freakish brain-washed religious people really can be.

Meanwhile, Arm-chair Warriors fighting the good fight against child trafficking are not thinking about the ways in which the expansion of international adoption can harm a country's poorest of poor people.  Or maybe they do.  One doesn't have to be a country's president to know those in sending countries see international adoption as a tremendous relief.  Less money spent on the poor, and more cash coming in, the better.  Ah yes, international adoption is such a great humanitarian effort, especially when you look at it from all sides.  <dripping sarcasm>

Here's the sick added twist -- as American Christian warriors storm-off to foreign lands, as they help in the name of God, saving poor, homeless children from having sex with strangers for shelter or food, they are forgetting something.  Each and every day in various parts of America, (the beautiful), American children are forced to do the same damn thing.  Yes, in the land of milk and honey, where foster care is an embarrassing joke, a funny game is being played.  When it comes to child safety and protection, there is no home-team advantage.  The way in which some foster-care children are forced to live... it's a sin, a crime... it's an ignored stain that brings shame to the American people.  Where is the concerned interest... where is the care... where is the team-effort?  It barely exists.  Ironic, ain't it?  When it comes to world politics, and humanitarian provisions, Americans prove time and time again, some groups are indeed more deserving of negligence and decay than others. 

So... as an outside observer and adoption critic, I wait to see what new news comes-out next.  What verdict awaits the ten Baptists on a mission to save children from poverty and the corrupting ills that go with it?  What judgment call will be made about abduction, illegal adoption and all that needs to be done to deter people from preying upon the poor?   The Banks verdict didn't send a strong deterring message.  The  Madonna-in-Malawi situation didn't send a very strong deterring message.  What message is going to be sent now, for the world to hear and see?

According to one of the latest articles, Haitian officials insist some prosecution is needed to help deter child trafficking, which many fear will flourish in the chaos caused by the devastating Jan. 12 quake.   Question is, will that wish be granted, and will it be granted by those in the United States?